Book I

(ll. 143-467) is entirely taken up with a general sketch of the contents of that poem. It is clear that, at the time of writing, Vergil was, in the main, a new book to him, whilst Ovid was certainly an old acquaintance.

[6] By this, I only mean that Lydgate seems to have been indebted to Chaucer for the general idea of his poem, and even for the title of it (cf. Ho. Fame, 120). For a full account of all its sources, see the admirable edition of Lydgate's Temple of Glas by Dr. J. Schick, p. cxv. (Early Eng. Text Society).

[7] Misprinted 'bright,' as the final _e_ has 'dropped out' at press; of course it should be the adverbial form, with final _e_. In l. 507, the form is 'brighte' again, where it is the plural adjective. And, owing to this repetition, MSS. F. and B. actually omit lines 504-7.

[8] Morris has _rabewyures_, from MS. F.; but there is no such word in his Glossary. See the New E. Dictionary, s.v. _Baboon_.

[9] Morris has _Reues_; but his Glossary has: '_Reues_, or _reyes_, sb. a kind of dance.' Of course it is plural.

[10] Morris has _clywe_; and his Glossary has '_Clywe_, v. to turn or twist'; but no such verb is known. See _Claw_, v. § 3, in the New E. Dict.

[11] Morris has _frot_; but it does not appear in the Glossary.

[12] I do not here endorse all Ten Brink's dates. I give his scheme for what it is worth, as it is certainly deserving of consideration.

[13] It is the stanza next following the last one quoted in vol. i. p. 23. I quote it from the Aldine edition of Chaucer, ed. Morris, i. 80.

[14] Of course Lydgate knew the work was unfinished; so he offers a humorous excuse for its incompleteness. I may here note that Hoccleve refers to the Legend in his poem entitled the Letter of Cupid, where Cupid is made to speak of 'my Legende of Martres'; see Hoccleve's Works, ed. Furnivall, p. 85, l. 316.

[15] In December, 1384, Richard II. 'held his Christmas' at Eltham (Fabyan).

[16] I think lines 568, 569 (added in B.) are meant to refer directly to ll. 703, 704.

[17] The Knightes Tale is a clear exception. The original Palamon and Arcite was too good to be wholly lost; but it was entirely recast in a new metre, and so became quite a new work.

[18] It is amusing to see that Chaucer forgot, at the same time, to alter A. 422 (= B. 432), in which Alcestis actually tells her name. The oversight is obvious.

[19] Line A. 277 reappears in the Canterbury Tales in the improved form--'And ever a _thousand_ gode ageyn oon badde.' This is the 47th line in the Milleres Prologue, but is omitted in Tyrwhitt's edition, together with the line that follows it.

[20] I.e. with the exception of the stanzas which were transferred from that work to the Man of Lawes Prologue and Tale; see the 'Account of the Sources,' &c. p. 407, and the last note on p. 307 of the present volume.

[21] I omit 'Marcia Catoun'; like Esther, she is hardly to be ranked with the heroines of olden fables. Indeed, even Cleopatra comes in rather strangely.

[22] See De Claris Mulieribus:--Cleopatra, cap. 86. Thisbe, cap. 12. Dido, cap. 40. Hypsipyle and Medea, capp. 15, 16. Lucretia, cap. 46. Hypermnestra cap. 13. And see Morley's English Writers, v. 241 (1890).

[23] It will be seen below that Chaucer certainly made use of this work for the Legend of Hypermnestra; see p. xl.

[24] Court of Love (original edition, 1561), stanzas 15, 16. I substitute 'ninetene' for the 'xix' of the original.

[25] 'The Jesuit Rapin, in his Latin poem entitled "Horti" (Paris, 1666), tells how a Dalmatian virgin, persecuted by the amorous addresses of Vertumnus, prayed to the gods for protection, and was transformed into a tulip. In the same poem, he says that the Bellides (cf. _bellis_, a daisy), who were once nymphs, are now flowers. The story [here] quoted [from Henry Phillips] seems to have been fabricated out of these two passages.'--Athenæum, Sept. 28, 1889.

[26] M. Tarbé shews that the cult of the daisy arose from the frequent occurrence of the name Marguérite in the royal family of France, from the time of St. Louis downward. The wife of St. Louis was Marguérite de Provence, and the same king (as well as Philip III., Philip IV., and Philip V.) had a daughter so named.

[27] Chaucer nearly suffered the same fate himself; see Ho. Fame, 586.

[28] Dr. Köppel notes that the name also occurs in Boccaccio's Amorosa Visione (V. 50) in company with that of Claudian: 'Claudiano, Persio, ed _Agatone_.'--Anglia, xiv. 237.

[29] He should also have excepted Philomela.

[30] These numbers refer to the lines of the B-text of the Prologue.

[31] Cf. L. G. W. 2177, 2227.

[32] Cf. L. G. W. 1952-8.

[33] Gower is amusing when he turns Ovid's 'Ad uada Maeandri' (Her. vii. 2) into a reference to 'King Menander'!

[34] The unfamiliar form _Guido_ was read as _Ouide_, by changing _G_, _o_, into _O_, _e_.

[35] Lounsbury (Studies in Chaucer, ii. 259) objects that many scholars suppose that Valerius Flaccus was unknown previously to 1416. But, if so, how did Chaucer know that the title of his poem was 'Argonauticon Libri,' and not 'Argonautae,' as in Dares?

[36] In fact, St. Augustine tells the whole story; De Ciuitate Dei, lib. i. cap. xix. And it was copied from St. Augustine's version into the Gesta Romanorum, Tale 135.

[37] For lines 1896-8, Bech refers us to Godfrey of Viterbo's Speculum Regum; see the extract from it in Pertz, Monumenta Germanica, vol. xxii. p. 38, l. 159; which tells us that the teaching of philosophy and of the seven sciences at Athens was introduced there by Jupiter; see further, at p. lvi.

[38] We must remember that, in olden times, writers often had to trust to their memory for details not always at hand. Hence such a mistake as this was easily made.

[39] The reference seems to be to Paulus Orosius, Hist. i. 11; but Belus is not there mentioned. Yet Hyginus (Fab. 168) has: 'Danaus Beli filius ex pluribus coniugibus quinquaginta filias habuit.' See Anglia, v. 350.

[40] People were soon called 'old' in those days. Dante, at 35, was in the 'middle' of life; after which, all was downhill. Hoccleve was miserably old at 53; Works, ed. Furnivall, p. 119. Jean de Meun, in his Testament, ed. Méon, iv. 9, even goes so far as to say that man flourishes up to the age of 30 or 40, after which he 'ne fait que langorir.' Premature age seems to have been rather common in medieval times. Moreover, Gower is speaking _comparatively_, as of one no longer 'in the floures of his youthe.'

[41] Ten Brink, Chaucer's Sprache, &c., p. 174.

[42] The heroic couplet was practically unknown to us till Chaucer introduced it. The rare examples of it before his time are almost accidental. A lyrical poem printed in Böddeker's Altenglische Dichtungen, p. 232, from MS. Harl. 2253, ends with a fair specimen, and is older than Chaucer. The last two lines are:--

'For loue of vs his wonges waxeþ þunne, His herte-blod he [gh]ef for al mon-kunne.'

The oldest single line of this form is at the end of Sawles Warde (ab. A.D. 1210); see Spec. of English, pt. i. p. 95:--

'That ich mot iesu crist mi sawle [gh]elden.'

[43] Not 1491, as Bell says; he has mistaken the line.

[44] From _geten_ to _gayler_; Dr. Furnivall has not got this quite right.

[45] This excellent essay investigates Chaucer's sources, and is the best commentary upon the present poem. I had written most of my Notes independently, and had discovered most of his results for myself. This does not diminish my sense of the thoroughness of the essay, and I desire to express fully my acknowledgments to this careful student. I may remark here that Chaucer's obligations to Froissart were long ago pointed out by Tyrwhitt, and that the name Agatho was explained in Cary's Dante. There is very little else that Bech has missed. Perhaps I may put in some claim to the discovery of a sentence taken from Boethius; and to some other points of minor importance.

[46] I.e. haste, rapidity. Cf. 'Rydynge ful _rapely_;' Piers the Plowman, B. xvii. 49.

[47] See